Sisters schools face crowding crisis

It's crowded in the classroom at both Sisters Elementary School and at Sisters Middle School. So crowded that the definition of "classroom" has been changed.

The crisis is partly created by the recent influx of families that have moved to Sisters with school-aged children - and it is exacerbated by the district's policy of allowing students from Bend and Redmond to attend Sisters schools.

Responding to these concerns, Superintendent Ted Thonstad told The Nugget that he made the decision more than a week ago "based on where we were class-size wise" to no longer accept students from Bend or Redmond at the elementary or middle schools. He continued, "I know we have had calls from Redmond asking us whether or not we would take additional students and we have said no."

Students from Bend and Redmond, however, are still being accepted at the high school, except in the 11th grade.

Public schools always face challenges in balancing student population, staff and funding.

School Board Chairman Rob Corrigan said, "The mission of the district is to educate kids, and that's all the district is about. For that to happen you need to have the kids, a teacher, a classroom and then money to pay for all of that."

Corrigan said that over the past few years, the district has had constraints caused by decreasing budgets and increasing class sizes. During those years, the district simply did not have the funds to hire additional teachers.

"Dollars were the real problem," Corrigan said.

This year the district has new constraints created by the simple fact that it has more kids to educate than in the past. The good part, Corrigan remarked, is that the way the state school funding works, "more kids equals more money."

The district is reimbursed by the state on a per capita basis. Consequently, this year's higher enrollment provided the district with the necessary funds to hire four additional certified teachers. These additional teachers make it possible for class sizes to be reduced.

"The most important thing for students and parents and families in the district to know is that better education is happening when we have smaller class sizes," Corrigan said.

The challenge that the district faces with adding the four teachers is assuring that adequate physical space is provided for each of them. Corrigan pointed out that if the district continued this year, as it has in the past, to maintain class sizes as high as 33 or 34, there are sufficient classrooms and overcrowding would not be an issue.

But the decision to break the same number of kids into class sizes of 26 to 28 requires more space. This is why this year it is starting to feel like we are "pushing up against the four walls of the building," he said. And this is why, even with the three additional classrooms that were freed-up at the elementary school because of the fifth graders' move to the middle school, one fourth grade class is being housed in the library.

Without trying to minimize the factor that overcrowding is a concern to many parents Corrigan reasoned, "The transfer students, the growth in the community, are actually enabling higher funding levels which is enabling us to hire more teachers which is enabling us to reduce class sizes. The really good news is that class sizes are smaller this year than they have been in the last several years."

As good as this news may be, parents remain troubled.

Karly Drake-Lusby says that a library is essential to a school. The public library is not an alternative to the library at school. Not all students have access to the public library nor does the public library teach students how to use a library.

"It is unacceptable that we do not have a library," she said.

Thonstad commented, however, that the school has not lost its library. He explained that much of the library has been placed on mobile carts, and the books are taken to the classrooms.

Thonstad said, "There is some benefit to that, quite frankly."

He reasoned that both the librarian and the teacher are there to help students pick out books that are appropriate for their reading levels and that transition time is not lost with children moving from their classroom to the library.

Drake-Lusby does not agree. She says that having the library on carts reminds her of a hospital. She remarks, "The librarian is not a candy striper, and children are not patients."

Corrigan pointed out that the goal of the district is to optimize the resources it has at its disposal. The district is accomplishing this goal by adding teachers, reducing class sizes and utilizing the space it has available for classrooms.

While expressing her appreciation for how hard the school board works and understanding that the board did the best it could with the last minute influx of students, Drake-Lusby still feels an alternative to housing the fourth grade class in the library must be found. She suggests a modular classroom and hopes the school board will entertain this idea.